Our New Spot

I tweeted about this last night but I wanted to say a couple more words and post a pic or two. Last year when Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy hit the East coast of the US my church’s building, which was located in Toms River, NJ was flooded and severely damaged. Unfortunately, we didn’t have flood insurance and regardless of the fact that the damage was caused by a natural disaster, the insurance company wouldn’t pay on our claim. We had to vacate the premises because we couldn’t afford to fix it.

So we ended up in our Pastors’ basement, which was where the church was located a few year back before we began renting space/time in a church right around the corner. The basement was fine but we couldn’t stay there forever for a variety of reasons. So we’ve been looking for a space somewhere close by and a few opportunities presented themselves. We ultimately decided to begin holding our worship services in the auditorium the Manchester Township High School. The space is great! It seats 600 and we’ve been granted permission to use it—get ready—rent free! We simply have to pay a nominal custodial fee for them to get someone to clean up on Sundays!

We had our first service in there today, which was a trial run of sorts, and it turned out pretty well. We still have some kinks to work out in terms of setting our stuff up and breaking it down efficiently, but all in all it was a good service. Here’s a panoramic shot of the new sanctuary:

Here’s a shot of the stage from the cheap seats:

And a closer shot of my pastor preaching:

We’re just so incredibly thankful for God granting us this opportunity and we pray that we can fill every seat with souls for God’s kingdom!